NBA Power Rankings: Chicago Bulls Will Top NBA with Balanced Offensive Attack
The Chicago Bulls gave their fans one heckuva show in their home opener, annihilating the Memphis Grizzlies 104-64.
A casual box score observer would focus on the Grizzlies’ point total and either laud the Bulls defense or ridicule Memphis’ offense. Those who pay a little bit more attention to detail would take notice of Chicago’s point total.
On the surface, scoring 104 points is not much of a feat in today’s fast-paced NBA.
The Miami Heat has scored 100-plus points in all but one game so far this season, and six teams are averaging more than 100 points per game.
Raw numbers aside, what makes the Bulls' 104-point venture exceptional is the manner in which it was done.
Carlos Boozer scored 17 points against the Grizzlies in that 40-point rout. Impressive? Not particularly. Boozer averaged 17.5 points per game just last season.
What makes this particular sub-twenty-point performance so notable is the fact Boozer, along with Ronnie Brewer, was Chicago’s leading scorer.
Last night’s contest was a clinic in team play and superb playing time distribution.
Four of the five Bulls starters scored in double digits with the lowest output being 11 points by Luol Deng. Five other Chicago players contributed at least six more points apiece, and all but one Bull who got playing time scored, that exception being Brian Scalabrine (but wasn’t it great to see him on the floor!?).
Also, let’s not forget to mention the 24 team assists, which means that nearly half of the Bulls scoring (46 percent of the points scored, to be exact) came from players setting up other players.
And speaking of playing time, Coach Thibodeau managed to give eight different players at least 20 minutes of action with no one going over 35 minutes. Derrick Rose only saw 26 minutes of action last night.
Now, granted, a lot of this is due to the large lead the Bulls had, but let’s not discount the implications this can have down the line.
The only other big dog in the Eastern Conference is the Miami Heat. They are built on having their superstar trio fill in as much of the offensive and defensive attack as they can with the other players chipping in a little here and there.
If you put that Heat team up against a Bulls team that is more capable of spreading the offense around, you’ll have a contest where the Heat are exhausted on defense, which will spill over into poorer offensive production.
Carry that scenario over the course of a seven-game series and you have a pretty grim outlook for any playoff opponent the Chicago Bulls face.
As the season progresses, nights like this will become more common and the Bulls' selfless style of play will look more and more like a “pick your poison” scheme.
If this Bulls team continues to improve its level of play in a manner that reflects its last three wins, an NBA title is imminent.
